externality held close

Alexander Ebert - Edward Sharpe and The magnetic Zeros

2010-06-14T01:37:00.002+10:00

Alexander Ebert - Edward Sharpe and The magnetic Zeros, originally uploaded by Steve Frizza - The Lighthouse Lab.

Alex is in a band I worked for in Melbourne a few months back called "Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros".. Really, really fun. I hooked them up a great friend of mine in Sydney, Steve Frizza. Steve went out with them and shot some gorgeous photos on his lovely Hassleblad and a Super 8 film camera.

Steve also hand prints all his work. Which is why the colours in this shot are so spectacular. Mmmmmmm.

Beck's Record Club -Skip Spence.

2010-06-10T17:21:00.000+10:00

I've been absolutely loving one of the latest Record Club offerings from beck.com.. It's recreating Alexander "Skip" Spence's "Oar". Prior to this I knew nothing of Skip Spence, or even who he was.

Beck's Record Club is awesome.. He gets a bunch of (often random) musicians into a studio and they recreate a classic album in a day, film it, mix it and put it up on beck.com. I'll admit, I wasn't a massive fan of the Leonard Cohen one, but this one is just great.

In the studio with Beck are Wilco (including Jeff's son, Spencer.. How's that for an awesome day to come to work with Dad?), Jamie Lidell and Lesley Fesit (amongst a few others).

I really love the analogue-ness of the album.. It's all hands on and pretty much old fashioned pure talent. There's some really awesome old-school swampy lo-fi electronic beats going on, which I find so refreshing while everything these days is just more and more computer based. From what you can tell on the videos, it's all outboard gear.. Stomp box and tape glory!

Everyone's having a great time, and it really shows. I reckon this is possibly the coolest thing I've seen Wilco involved in since a ghost is born.

Check it out.

Record Club: Skip Spence "Weighted Down" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

I stumbled across a torrent which had the video and audio all nicely split up.. I'm assuming it's never going to be commercially available due to what I imagine would be an arduous task of clearing it with all respective labels, so I've got a rapid share link for you to download it if you so desire. I recommend. It's fantastic.

Mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/397332204/Beck_-_Record_Club_3_-_Oar__mp3_.zip.html

MP4 Video

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=76CM6G3J

A good reason for me to enable comment notifications!

2010-06-10T16:46:00.001+10:00

Some of you may be familiar with my little Guy Sebastian/Twitter fiasco.. I won't go into detail, but basically, I did a nights work of stage tech for his sound guy. The show was mind-numbingly awful, and they made me stay about two hours extra and pack up all their backline while they all just floated around being useless. As anyone who works in what I do would, I checked the fridge to see if there was anything left before I left (as I thought everyone had gone) and grabbed a few beers. I also nicked a roll of gaff that was also left behind. Anyone who works in production will verify that this happens ALL the time, and is hardly out of the ordinary.

On the train on the way home, I tweeted my feelings regarding my night of experiences, perhaps a little enthusiastically, and forgetting the extraneous nature of Twitter. Come Monday morning, I received a rather irate phone call from Anatole Day, the Guy's douchebag sound guy/production manager telling me that apparently someone had called Guy's management, Festival Hall and the audio company telling them all about the stage guy who had been saying not nice things about the show.

I will admit that it was probably poor judgement on my part, and a lapse in my normal perfect professionalism. My tweets are still there for all to see, if anyone's curious, but honestly, I didn't say anything that bad. (Except maybe that it was "so awful I wanted to stab my eyes out with a fork"). But even still, it was all simply me voicing my opinions after work (I did, however, have them protected for a while afterwards).

Ironically, the whole Catherine Deveny debacle reminded me of it somewhat.. Gotta be careful what you tweet huh?

ANYWAY. This morning I noticed a comment from the certain anonymous someone, known only as "Stevo" on one of my earlier blog entries which read as follows...

Stevo said...

Ode to a wannabe music star

He was a jaded muso working as a stagehand
When all he really wanted was to front the band
With envious eyes he watched backstage
His mind venting and squirming in silent rage
After 7 long years this karaoke show winner
Should be serving him a McDonald's dinner
Not still on stage getting all those cheers
He thought to himself as he swiped some beers
Back home he tweeted about the star and his fans
While sullenly boozing on the stolen cans
Tweets full of malicious jealous stuff
But he didn't know when enough was enough
Boasting about stealing gaffa and a six pack
The stupid tool was asking for the sack
What he did was so very very dumb
He deserved the penalty that was to come
The twit got his just deserts I say
He deserved to go without the pay

23 February 2010 19:26

HAHAHAHAHAH!

Whoever you are Stevo, thank you, I did enjoy that very much. However, I am yet to receive any deserts.. Could you inform me of where I might find them?

(Of course.. Anyone expressing negative feelings towards in regards to a Guy Sebastian show must be jealous, right?).

i took some pictures of a band..

2010-06-02T16:51:00.005+10:00

I took my camera to a show of some friends of mine when I was in Sydney the other week and took some pictures. Here's a couple. The rest on my Flickr. I was pretty stoked that I can still do it! Yew!

Valar's site here.

2010-05-10T23:15:00.000+10:00

I got blogged! I'm a cute boy with cat!!

Cute Boys With Cats

i gots me a camera finally

2010-05-06T23:06:00.001+10:00

Just a couple of shots I've taken so far..

i have been a very slack blogger.

2010-04-13T02:06:00.000+10:00

But here are some things for you to listen to.

across the wave by kristofferpaulsen

I was trying out a new bit of gear tonight and this little melody just popped into my head. It's rather Jeff Beck derivative, I know, but I really love it.

(Embarrassingly, the only convenient way I could record it, was to crank up my headphones and put my iphone next to them.. Which turned out surprisingly well, I thought! Uploaded directly from the FiRE recorder app).

My friend Sally had a birthday party last Saturday, and she asked specifically no presents;- just prose. I was working on this one, so I finished it, did a quick demo and loaded it onto a pretty custom usb birthday card.

Better recording coming.

here's to no-one by kristofferpaulsen

Ami rides the Golden Plains

2010-03-08T22:02:00.001+11:00

Just got back from a week tour managing crazy Israeli band Monotonix.. This shot kinda sums up the week for me. Amazing week. From being banned from every backline rental company in the country (after one show!) to untangling the stinkiest fifty meter mic cable ever.

Mobile Post

2010-01-29T02:57:00.001+11:00

Why you should go to El Joyero.

kitteh musik

2009-12-08T01:48:00.000+11:00

Just got a cat the other week, and I've been totally fascinated by the sound of purring. Seriously, it's amazing. Such an interesting sound from such a small animal. Anyhoo, I grabbed my phone the other night with the little fella was sitting on me and recorded it for a little. And then put the sample into Ableton late one night and started fiddling. Here it is, if you're interested..

Kittehmusik by kristofferpaulsen

it's all over, dressed up and dressed down..

2009-12-01T01:58:00.009+11:00

I was working on a track a couple of months ago.. Which I just listened to again then, and something struck me. Here's the one that was *kind of* finished (with the exception of the awkward drums..).

It's all over (band) by kristofferpaulsen

When I was listening just then in my itunes, it went onto the next version, which was without any of the extra instrumentation.

It's all over (demo) by kristofferpaulsen

After all that, I think I much prefer it without. Funny how that happens. Ugh.

For a free download of both tracks, click through to my Soundcloud.

Here's the lyrics as well.

It’s all over
It’s all over
Put my guns on the ground
I’m throwin in the towel
It’s all over

mother testified reckless,
she convicted God as death on a mattress
mother said sin ignoring trial,
realise death died contended,
husband sounds sickness sentenced

Sunshine jailed an innocent man
a victim pushed to the wall
she struggled guilty To the ground
jailed disconnected suffered on remand

Wipe that look of your face
This was never yours to take
I’ve heard it all before
But I thought you’d try sell me
Something new this time

I feel so old these days
Standing with one foot in the grave
It’s my name on the wall
I can’t go before
It’s all over

(c)Kristoffer Paulsen 2009

"Will she ever come out? Or are we to be here forever?"

2009-11-26T01:24:00.005+11:00

I had to complete a major Composition 3 with Kynan Robinson assignment for uni this semester, and here's what I did.

It was based around the concepts of aleatory, tone rows, indeterminacy and text based composition. I'm a big fan of John Cage, and I find calculated aleatory and human reaction/interaction absolutely fascinating.

I drew quite a lot of inspiration from a video of John Cage performing Water Walk in 1960 on TV show "I've Got A Secret."

I haven't really told anyone what the piece was about (for me), as I'm a big believer in the concept that once an artwork leaves an artists hands, it no longer belongs to the artist, but the viewer/receiver. I've had so many people tell me their own interpretations of this piece, and almost all of them are completely different. Which tells me that the piece is a success.

I've included the master score behind the break. Hit "read more" if you'd like to see it. (This is the score my lecturer was given. Each performer received their own individual scores, and none of them knew what each other was to be doing).

Feel free to leave your responses, I'd love to hear them.

x

KRISTOFFER PAULSEN COMPOSITION 3 MAJOR WORK

Will she ever come out? Or are we to be here forever?

Each performer will be given a list of instructions that will function as their score. Each performer will be completely unaware of what the other performer's instructions are. This is vital for the piece to be successful. Each performer will have instructions that the piece is deadly serious, and they are not permitted to laugh at all.

Performer 1 will walk onto the stage, walk up to the microphone and begin reading from a text. The text is an excerpt of Anton Artaud's To Have Done With the Judgement of God, rearranged (or cut up) completely randomly. The performer has instructions that they may not, under any circumstances, look any direction other than straight ahead, or at the text.

Performer 2 comes onto the stage exactly one minute after Performer 1 begins to speak, and begins tapping a prewritten rhythm on an empty glass. The rhythm is written according to a tone row based around the aforementioned "cut up" text, where each number is equal to a semi-quaver.

Performer 3 will come on stage fourty-five seconds after Performer 2 has come on stage. Performer 3 will straight away take a record from the pile next to the turntable and place it on the turntable, and play it from a random starting point. The record will be allowed to play for an amount of time specified on their instructions. After that period is up, the record will be replaced with another one, and the process will be repeated until the last record. The time value for each record playing is devised from the same tone row used earlier. The records are taken randomly from the local Vinnie's, the morning of the performance, and selected from the rack according to the tone row (i.e. skip 2 records, take one, skip 7 records, take 1, skip 4 records, take one etc etc). The last record will be allowed to play out, but in reverse from the beginning.

When Performer 2 has finished performing on the glass, they will put the glass down, walk to the electric guitar which is sitting on a stand, turn up the volume so it begins to feed back, then take two paces back. There will be a bucket containing tennis balls sitting on the ground. The performer will begin to take one tennis ball at a time, and throw it at the guitar, causing the feedback and sound to change. At the last ball, the guitar is then left feeding back.

When Performer 2 has run out of tennis balls, and Performer 3 has run out of records, the two performers will cross the stage to stand facing each other behind performer 1. When they are both there, they will then walk so each of them are standing facing Performer 1 (one on each side). They will stand facing Performer 1 for ten seconds, after which they will begin to scream as long and loud as they can at Performer 1.

PERFORMER 1 MUST NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUIMSTANCES LOOK AT PERFORMER 2 OR 3, OR DISPLAY ANY REACTION TO THIS.

Performer 2 and Performer 3 will continue screaming.

After they have been screaming for thirty seconds, Performer 4 will come walking up from the audience with a guitar case. Performer 4 will place the case down, open it up, take the guitar out, and smash it on the stage in front of Performers 1, 2 and 3. After Performer 4 has finished smashing the guitar, they then turn to the audience and exclaim "THIS IS THE CONCLUSION OF THE PERFORMANCE!".

This is the end of the piece.

TONE ROW USED IN PIECE
5, 11, 10, 8, 9, 4, 1, 2, 12, 6, 3, 7

Brown and Bunting Booksellers - Northcote

2009-11-25T03:56:00.008+11:00

Brown and Bunting Booksellers are pretty much my favourite new bookstore in my little patch of Melbourne. I first discovered this awesome little second hand bookstore on the opening night of Northcote's "Northern Exposure" festival, which was ironically their opening night. It seems, without fail, every time I go in there, I always come out with if not at least one new book, an arm full.

When you walk into the store, you're immediately hit by a deliciously refreshing smell of what I can only guess is the only recently installed (they only opened some five months ago) timber shop fittings. Something about it just puts me right into a book hunting mood, and it seems every time I then manage to remember something I've been meaning to track down.

I think what makes Brown and Bunting so awesome, while it might seem to be a bit obvious, is their range. They always have an exceptional range of recent, and out of print books, and they're always organised and easy to find. The books are always in excellent, if not perfect condition. And best of all, they're actually really well priced (often surprisingly so!). Since discovering Amazon (and it's deliciously ethical clone betterworldbooks.com), I have found myself compiling lusty shopping carts full of "been meaning to read that.." books from 'market place' sources, often because it's just so damn cheap. But, I'm actually stoked to be able to say that B&B are generally cheaper than Amazon. Yep, how about that? And you get to feel good about supporting a small business of gorgeous, lovely Northcote people. And there's something about second hand books that's just a bit nicer, I find. Especially old ones.

I might be getting on a bit of a theme here with all my record store/cafe/bookstore trail here, but the staff (who I'm pretty sure are the owners as well) are absolutely lovely. Benita, who seems to always be working when I go in there is always really friendly, and I tend to always end up standing at the counter and yakking away with her about all sorts of delightfully interesting things.

I've been on a bit of a quest to read all the 1930's-1960's American classics, and it's just been amazing how every time I've been in there, the exact book I've been thinking I'd like to read has been sitting on the shelf. A bit of a feat, I'd say, for a second hand book store. They proudly exclaim on their website that they add/process four boxes of new books a day, and it really shows. Their range is terrific. I even found Wolfgang Flur's (former drummer from Kraftwerk) "I was a Robot". Which I got halfway through and left in a pub, to discover exactly how difficult it is to track down ANYWHERE, to B&B's credit. And another time, a brand new copy of Craig Schuftan's "Hey Nietzsche, leave them kids alone!". And another time, a gorgeous old copy of a Steinbeck Omnibus ("Grapes of Wrath", "Of Mice and Men"). Of course, you'll find your own gems.

In short, it's a really nice second hand book store run by lovely people, with everything you want, all in excellent condition, very reasonably priced. You should go there.

237 High Street, Northcote.

http://brownandbunting.com/

Nice site too.

(Benita jumped out of the frame when I lifted up my iphone to take this one.. I think I might have weirded her out a little.. It's ok! I'm just going to post it on the internet and say your shop's cool! Serious!). Gotta figure out a way of doing that without making people think I'm creepy. Hmm.

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El Joyero Cafe - Thornbury

2009-11-23T15:20:00.008+11:00

A new cafe has just opened up near our house, and it's called El Joyero. Located just south of the High/Plenty intersection in Thornbury, kinda over the road and down a bit from South Preston Safeway. As someone forced to move away from the inner North by the great rental price soar of 2007, I am always excited when I find another gem surface along the ever northern creeping trail of High Street beauties (not that I'd rather live anywhere else now..!).

Ollie and Christina have done a great job with the conversion at El Joyero. Apparently the place used to be a jewellers (as a quick google search will verify), and they've kept some of the best bits of the furnishings. Beautifully decorated with everything indie nerds love (70's kitsch art, random music memorabilia, old toys etc etc) the atmosphere is gorgeously welcoming and cosy.

While the food menu is basic (but still tasty), the coffee is what wins here. El Joyero brews St. Ali coffee, a label of roasters with passion matched perhaps only by Alchemists.

So far I've had three flat whites and a long black here, and all have been really yummy. I thought at first the flat whites were a little on the weak side, but I'm thinking now that it's actually the flavour of the coffee, a bit more subtle and round.

They've also got a fantastic little collection of records, CD's and books for sale, much of them from bands and artists who've recently performed there (I just saw my first 5" record.. never knew there was such a thing!), as well as home made stuff (a notebook from a Bonsoy carton? Awesome!). I've also been eyeing off the copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Yeah, so it's a decent little selection of stuff.

They also host Sunday afternoon shows, film nights, art exhibitions etc (none of which I've been to yet), which seem to be that really lovely grass-roots community backyard vibe. (Have a look at the Myspace for more info).

Another little thing I love about the springing up of these super-cool little cafes, is how they're often placed in areas which are still very much populated by a high proportion of an older demographic, most of whom don't think "oh I won't go into that cafe, that's way too hipster for me..". On the contrary, they head in, and make the most of the fact that they can now get a decently extracted coffee in Preston. Which means you then get this beautiful juxtaposition of this cute, trendy little cafe full of nostalgia and indie collectibles, and people who remember when this shit was cool the first time round (before most of us were even born. While I was there today, a little old man came in and ordered an iced-coffee (he no doubt saw the sign out the front, which I can imagine was there to take advantage of the recent heatwave), and a little pink cupcake. So there was this 75 year old drinking an iced-coffee from a straw out of one of those old aluminium cups we all grew up with, and a cute little pink iced cupcake. Next to a Bob Dylan poster, and a guy who looked like one of the guys from Architecture in Helsinki. Gorgeous.

Go check it out.

923 High St, Thornbury VIC 3071‎ - (03) 9480 4070‎

Myspace

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can't sleep so counting.. samples?

2009-11-23T03:57:00.002+11:00

While my wife and cat decided I was unworthy of bed space tonight, I was lying unable to sleep. So I got up, made some tea, and fired up my Beta version of Max for Live enabled Ableton and started browsing through the free user patch collection at www.maxforlive.com. This is a really cool community where everyone is sharing the patches they've made, and even though it's only been live for a short while, there's some absolutely remarkable development going on.

I downloaded a patch called "sliderAmbience", which plays back a sample at four different speeds. Cool. I plugged it into my copy of Live, and away I went. I threw in a sample from the decarly ep i recorded a year ago with Nathaniel de Heer and the boys (the vocal track from Animal Follow) and started fiddling. The results were really, really impressive, I thought.

A single vocal sample can be transformed into a whole new instrument.. Slowed right down to a ethereal groan, or flicked and twisted to sound like some bizarre turntable.. And there's four of them going on at once!

Anyhoo. Here's what I came up with, just improvising away and a few tiny adjustments afterwards. Listen the whole way through if you've got time, there's some beautiful, amazing textures and tones in there. Especially towards the end. Oh and if you've got decent speakers/headphones.. Use 'em.

no danger by kristofferpaulsen

By the way, if you're thinking of buying Ableton, or Max for Live, now's the time to do it. They're giving 20% off because it's their tenth birthday or something. Sweeeet.

www.ableton.com

chilli mocha win.

2009-11-23T03:48:00.000+11:00

Hey. Let me brag about a coffee I made today. Chocolate with a sprinkle of chilli powder slow melted with a fondue tea candle thing, poured into a glass. Then a shot of espresso pulled straight in, with steamed milk poured in last. My squiggly was a bit crap, but oh my. Ammmazing.

Let's get this straight.

2009-11-22T02:46:00.005+11:00

Many years ago, when I was younger (well, almost ten years younger.. I suppose that's not THAT long), I had the notion that I would like to be a professional photographer. I knew a lot about gear, I knew what different films did, and I thought I could take an alright picture. I burnt through film like there was no tomorrow and exploited my staff discount at Paxton's Chatswood for all it was worth. A year later, I enrolled in a commercial photography course at Ultimo Tafe, where I would spend the next year really learning about photography, and more or less having my spirit completely crushed. The idea being that the commercial world was so cut throat that you needed to know your shit back to front, and it had to be good. Really good. If you weren't going to make it at college, there was no way you were going to make it out there. I think this was a great thing. It was more or less an ethos of "get good.. or get bad marks..". And half the teachers didn't really care if you failed, it was your choice. I actually did pretty well. I blitzed most subjects, except for the Small Business Management subject, which I failed, and never bothered to complete (meaning I never actually graduated). Ironically, this subject was the one which required foresight and the resourcefulness to propose how you would actually go out there and make a living- which at the ripe old age of 19 I didn't have, or just couldn't be bothered. I worked for a while, assisting and shooting, and did okay, but not well enough. The big hole of 2002 sucked up all the work I was getting and I found myself in need of a solid income, so I got a job at Optus and let my soul be raped by the monolith of the corporate world for two long years. Somewhere between then and my last paid photography gig not long after, I decided to call it quits as far as being a working photographer was concerned. Something had changed.

That something was digital. Digital meant that anyone with a few grand could call themselves a photographer. And they did. It's taken a long time for digital SLR cameras been of a capability which I consider actually rivals the performance of film, and I haven't had the cash spare to acquire one, so the closest to shooting digital I come is taking pictures on my iphone. There is a lot that can be debated regarding the skill level of someone who started off shooting film vs. someone who learnt on a digital, but this is not my point. What I want to draw attention to is the fact that many, many people go and spend their money on a digital SLR, and just shoot. In more cases than not, they haven't actually taken the time to learn how to expose and compose an image. They'll fluke a good one here and there, and generally have a few tricks they fall back on which get them through.

While I was flicking around Facebook tonight I found a girl who works as a photographer, simply because someone I'm friends with "became a fan". Her work absolutely epitomises this.

To be fair, I'm not going to name her. And just incase she, or anyone in the images comes across this, I'm not doing this to be mean or nasty, I'm simply critically analysing the work for the greater good of the photographing community, and for that matter their clients as well. I've met the girl in question, and she's lovely, however I feel her work is incredibly sloppy, for one particular reason I'm about to show you.

As I flicked through a few of the albums, I was absolutely gobsmacked at how ordinary the work was, yet she's a working photographer. She's charging (and people are paying) good money for work which my teachers back at Ultimo would have locked me in the film loading room until I promised to sell all my equipment and apply for a job at Target (to be fair, they were really, really hard. And I'm sure people that work at Target are very clever. You get my point though). What stunned me even more was this. Check this small sample of images out, and tell me what you see.

(Hidden behind a break because I got seeing these ugly photos polluting my blog... Critique continues..)

Did you notice something? Not one of those shots is straight. All of them are badly composed, and shot on some dodgy angle, in an attempt to make the image appear dynamic or 'edgy'. Okay, to her credit, she does occasionally shoot straight, as we can see in the next image..

But to me, this just sums up what is killing photography as an art form today. People relying on cheap tricks to make their images look good. A digital SLR and a copy of Lightroom does not make you a photographer. Blood, sweat and tears does (from a good eye) does. If you're an aspiring photographer, please, take this as an encouragement. Go buy books of the great photographers. Study their work, find out everything about what made them tick and what made their images so great. Analyse the photos. What is it about the images that makes them work? Read your camera manual. Read books about technique. Turn your mode dial AWAY from AUTO and onto MANUAL! Learn how to use it! Learn what all those extra buttons do. Read books on composition. Try all these things out for yourself. Be hungry to learn more. Never, ever, ever allow yourself to think you know everything. If that happens, you've stopped growing, and you're bound for a fall.

On the flipside of all this. While the en masse adoption of digital cameras might mean there's far more crap photography being made, it means that those creating truly beautiful art stand out like crazy. So go do it.

I thought I'd be a nerd, embrace a cliche and put up some pictures by a man who I think is one of the greatest photographers ever to have lived. Henri-Cartier Bresson. Always inspires me to go grab a camera and do some living.

till next time

PS a friend just mentioned music photographers. Don't even get me STARTED on music photographers.

Greville Records:- A piece of Australian and Melbourne music and cultural history..

2009-11-21T04:09:00.002+11:00

Greville Records was one of the first places I ever found in Melbourne that really took my breath away. It's one of those old school record stores immortalised in Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity" (and it's subsequent film adaption starring John Cusack and Jack Black..), and I love it. There's quite a few places in Melbourne where you can really feel history. It's like you're stepping back into an age that's almost slipped through our fingers, to be gone forever. This is certainly one of them. Hidden a few hundred meters from Chapel St in Prahan, you could be forgiven for being absolutely shocked to find it in such close proximity to a main road dotted with "high fashion" stores, and their accompanying folk (I was!).

There's a sizeable vinyl section out the back, an extensive CD selection in the middle, and the front is filled with hard to find box sets and special editions, books, new releases, t-shirts, hoodies and who knows what else. It's hard to find anything bad in the place, which I suppose is the one thing they don't stock.. Shit. Warwick, the owner, is also a wealth of information. He's pretty funny, and not afraid to offer opinions (he once told me that he thought Ryan Adams was just some dude who had too many Gram Parsons records, even though I had a copy of Heartbreaker on the counter in front of him). There's just something that soothes my soul about this place, and I wish it weren't on the other side of the river where I tend to not frequent that often. Although, half the time when I DO manage to get there I see too many things I want and just end up buying nothing instead.

These are the kind of record stores that we, as a music loving community need to support. The JB HI-Fi's, while they may be cheap have nothing compared to the wealth of history and knowledge that exists within their doors. Rather than answering to faceless shareholders who buy and sell at a whim, they run their own businesses, and do it because they love it.

Please. Go buy stuff from this shop. It's the best.

Greville Records

152 Greville Street,

Prahran, Victoria, 3181

P: 03 9510 3012

He's even got a shitty, badly designed website too. Perfect.

http://grevillerecords.com/

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le blog.. rejuvenated and rejigged.

2009-11-19T14:23:00.000+11:00

In the past few weeks I've felt like I wanted to start blogging again.. Sharing things that I've found while my wanderings and bumblings. Offering back to the wider community some of the things that help me tick. And some that's just fucking cool.

There's a couple of posts on the way, but in the meantime I thought I'd start things off again with a bit of shameless self-promotion. I've been for a long time thinking that I'd love to combine the two different musical styles that I tend to play to create something a bit less common. These two styles are kinda folkie/alt-country singer-songwriter type stuff, and glitchy laptop electronic music. I've recently been taking part of the 'Max For Live' public beta, which has meant I've been allowed to use a Beta version of M4L. (For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about.. M4L is the result of an agreement between the two companies Ableton and Cycling74, which allows integration of the program MAX/MSP into Ableton Live. A short answer about why anyone would care, is that it means that it is now possible for pretty much anyone to create their own plug-ins and devices for Live, and to be able to share them with anyone else around the world. Cool huh?). I've found the possibilities of this app quite mind-boggling, and extremely conducive to creativity.

I've decided to start making this music under the moniker of "tiny tiger", and here's the first result of me toying with it. It's called "this is a sad song".

this is a sad song by kristofferpaulsen

Actually, while I'm posting music.. Here's something else I did this week. It's called "Musik für vier Sänger und einen Bruder" or "Music for Four Singers and a Brother". (But I translated it to German because I'm a big Stockhausen nerd). It's made completely of sewing machine samples. I had the idea for this when Fenella Kernabone said on Twitter that taping someone sewing would be boring. I thought she meant recording the sound, and was mortified (she actually meant videoing. Oops). So I made this. Just to prove her wrong. Dunno if she'll ever actually listen to it. I've been writing a paper on how Stockhausen influenced Miles Davis around the "On The Corner" period (i.e. around 1970), and he was a really fascinating, inspiring composer. Music is everywhere, if we choose to listen to it.

Have a listen if you like. It's all sewing machine, slowed down, sped up, vocoded, filtered etc etc on Ableton Live. Because I'm a big fat nerd.

Musik für vier Sänger und einen Bruder by kristofferpaulsen

Much love! See ya next time! (And it won't just be all me pushing my own music!)

"hey kris, you've got a soul don't you??"

2008-02-24T02:01:00.000+11:00

This was a question poked at me whilst we were sitting in a circle enjoying a water/tobacco/whatever else you choose in five minutes break this afternoon. Wierdly, this question caught me rather off guard. The asker of the question was Matt Dravich, our fearless leader, and from what I have been able to gather, a man who, I suspect, has done most of the things my parents used to warn me about when I was a kid.

"What? What are you talking about?".

"I'm pretty sure you're probably the only person in this circle who has a soul.. So have you got one?".

"Errm.. Well.. I suppose so? I've not ever really thought about that question".

(Someone else somewhere in there "I don't, I sold mine ages ago..!").

And so forth, and so forth. I thought it was an interesting little exchange, as you broke down what was really going on in the conversation. Matt, who think of himself as having most things figured out, was really asking me something along the lines of either:-

a) Do you believe in a deity?
b) Do you believe in a form of spirituality?
c) Do you believe that you consist of more than muscles, flesh and blood?

Or something like that. And the more I think about it, the more the paradox of the situation emerges.

To ask someone "Do you have a soul?" is such a strange thing. In conventional Christian spirituality (or that which I grew up around), a person is made up primarily of three parts, the Body, Soul and Spirit. The body, of course was the fleshly component. The Spirit is that which communicates with God and deals with everything thus related, and the soul is where our emotions are played out. So, in this context, to ask one if they have a soul, is essentially asking "do you experience emotion". Interestingly enough, this is what I felt like I was being asked at first. I simply felt like I was unable to answer the question. I suppose, upon consideration, this was because it just felt so absurd.

Even then, I was playing it out in my head.. "That boys got SOUL!" sprung to mind.. How does this question come to play then? Would my declaration of being without a soul mean that I would become thus incapable of wailing out a blues solo with the required 'soul' to make it come alive? "That's not what I'm talking about..". Oh yes? Then the two are completely seperate are they?

It really makes me think.. Okay, so I am the first to confess that these days I halt for a second when I describe my religious beliefs as "Christian", as I find the category so broad, and containing so much that I find completely intolerable. But even still, I find it so weird to think that people think that everything we are comes from nothing more than a few liters of blood pumping around a fleshy bag of bones and muscle. The brain is an amazing organ, but surely it is simply an instrument for something greater to play out it's instructions to a corresponding body?

So, do I have a soul? What does that mean??

Time to check the Mac dictionary...

soul |sōl|
noun
1 the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal.
• a person's moral or emotional nature or sense of identity : in the depths of her soul, she knew he would betray her.
• the essence of something : integrity is the soul of intellectual life.
• emotional or intellectual energy or intensity, esp. as revealed in a work of art or an artistic performance : their interpretation lacked soul.

Well. That was easy. Yes. I believe I do.

Matt. Go read dictionaries sometime. You knob.

home late after considering the world.

2008-02-15T06:24:00.000+11:00

I just arrived in after a night of Moonlight Cinema on THAT day of the year.. Yes, I'm talking about Valentines Day. What a crock of shit.

This year, I've decided to firmly defend my views and reject the notion of "yeah you can say you don't believe in Valentine's Day, but your girlfriend will still be pissed at you". Yeah whatever, fuck off, you weakling.

I reject Valentine's Day for the following reasons:-

1) I feel that it's based on a system of rejection. Everyone scrambles to have one, as to not be left out. Everyone that IS left out, sits outside the party wondering what it would be like to be accepted and welcomed into what appears to be this party of loving bliss and perfect acceptance. Everyone who seems to be blissfully enjoying the aforementioned party is nervously eyeing everyone else trying to convince themselves that this is what they actually want.

2) Meanwhile the retailers, card manufacturers, flower distributors, restaurants and anyone else who benefits from the "oh fuck, if i dont do anything then i'll be yelled at" notions that propels the hordes of drones that fall for this, are reaping in profits that not even the other pseudo-religious, gigantuous capitalist mega-fest, Christmas, can match.

It's so horrible. It's such a blatant stab of retail, and capitalism in general, to cash in on "love". For fucks sake people, show love and devotion every other day, not just on some day that some American retail shmuck tells you is the day that you're supposed to spend a stack of money on your "true love".

It was absolutely amazing tonight.. Almost 3000 people squeezed into the space which ideally holds 1200 at Moonlight Cinema. They bought each other wine, they laughed, they dropped rubbish all over the ground like they were too cool, and they even sat through one of the worst films we've screened, all to get a root out of each other. For goodness sake, grow up people. Taking your girlfriend to Moonlight Cinema is not original. Taking your girlfriend to see some horrible, horrible American romantic-comedy is downright freaking terrible.

Anyway. My point is, V-day is awful. Really. I was going to write something else but I can't remember. I think it was about lesbian bars. Or even milk crates. Something from the last 6 hours anyway. Eh.

first post and the apology

2008-02-14T01:12:00.000+11:00

So I decided to set up one of these blogger things because Ryan did. And because I wanted to get away from Myspace. So here it is.

I really want to write something about the Apology today. If you're familiar with Australia and what has been going on over the last few days, then this will mean little to you, so maybe skip it.

I drove into the city to join the gathering at Federation Square and watch the address on the big screen, and was immediately struck with the number of people there. The square was easily the fullest I've ever seen it. There was just so many people there. Indigenous, Non-Indigenous, young, old, hippies, corporates, yuppies, musos, they were all there. And not only were they there, but there was an unspoken buzz. Everyone was there and completely unified. There was excitement in the air, the Nation was finally about to make a step forward.

The Prime Minister gave an address which had me on the verge of tears, and many, many others well and truly over. We'd done it, we'd finally said sorry. The gate was now open for the wrongs of yesterday to be righted, and for the nation to walk through as one people.

But then something happened which caught me completely by surprise. Brendon Nelson, the leader of the opposition rose to give his address. I could not believe my ears. After hearing such a refreshingly to the point delivery from Rudd, falling on my ears like snowflakes, Nelsons words were like bricks through a window. Coming barely short of saying the Stolen Generation was a good thing, he tried to justify the actions of the Government of the time and the people with "the best of intentions". He talked about the Northern Territory intervention, and listed all the things wrong with Indigenous Culture (ironically, almost all of the things he listed i believe happen just as much in white culture.. perhaps we're just better at hiding it) and tried to glorify the actions and policies of the last 14 years of Liberal Government.

I came home from work and checked my email, facebook, myspace and all the usual, and found that while a great majority of my friends can recognize today as being a massive landmark, and a long overdue step in the right direction, there were those who didn't. While many of us united in respect with a tiny gesture of the facebook status "x is sorry", one particular person on my list had "x isn't sorry".

I looked at my myspace bullitens, and one person who i consider of great intelligence posted the following (after a first saying "why do I have to say Sorry myspace? I didn't do anything"):-

Date:	13 Feb 2008 12:06 AM
Subject:	sorry.
Body:	nah, just kidding. sorry for questioning debunked clap-trap like the stolen generation. ouch! p.s. gerard, definitely not aimed at you.

After being lucky enough to be able to witness such a historic event in such an unforgettable environment, with so many people in such peaceful, expectant unity, and then watching Archie Roach sing "They Took the Children Away", and end the song in tears, and share an embrace with his wife Ruby, to come home and discover that people can still have these hateful, ignorant, selfish views made me feel physically ill. How can these people possibly think this? How can we still hold onto the insensitive petty pride and spineless buck passing "it's not my fault!" toting immaturity which has been dividing this country for eighty years?

I lay on my bed this afternoon and dug out my Mike Mccarthy cd "firefloodfreedom", and played it from track five. I lay there for an hour or two with my eyes shut, and tears rolling down my face.

Fire flood freedom

We live in a beautiful Country
We come from a beautiful land
My friends who lived here before me
Your ways I must understand

Cause I’ve been ignorant to your customs
And I’ve read misleading thoughts of white man
Please find forgiveness in your spirit
Your ways I must understand

“These times are ready for change”,
This faint whisper touches my ear
The seed has surely been planted
Are we so proud we cannot say we’re sorry?

Can you hear the whisper stirring up the soul?
Flames from a fire that refuse to give in
Start to scorch your conscience…
Burning off exterior, exposing what’s within.

Living, breathing country
Beautiful and sacred land
Happy, smiling faces…
Keep helping me to understand

“These times are ready for change”,
This faint whisper touches my ear
The seed has surely been planted
Are we so proud we cannot say we’re sorry?

FIRE, FLOOD AND FREEDOM
Water, blood and the flow of life
Pulling down all our pretence
Forcing us to realise…

“These times are ready for change”,
This faint whisper touches my ear
The seed has surely been planted
Are we so proud we cannot say we’re sorry?

Mike Mccarthy- Firefloodfreedom, Significant Records